


Hail Mary

by BeautyGraceOuterSpace



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Academy Era, Bones needs a friend, Gen, Jim needs a hug, Prompt Fill, lonely boys adjusting to their new lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:29:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26244187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeautyGraceOuterSpace/pseuds/BeautyGraceOuterSpace
Summary: It takes 23 days, 13 hours, and 7 minutes for Len to completely lose it on the kid.After an unexpected call which turned out to be Joanna, somehow having gotten a hold of Jocelyn’s comm and accidentally dialing him, the briefest moment hearing his baby girl’s voice before the connection went dead, he was already in a sour mood and wanted nothing more to be left alone to wallow for a while.And of course, that’s when Kirk found him.He cuts the kid off mid-sentence, putting a halt to his ramblings about a “night on the town” with a low and livid, “What do you want from me, kid?”
Comments: 10
Kudos: 94





	Hail Mary

**Author's Note:**

> "Based on this prompt: The 1st few weeks at the academy, when Jim has sort of glued himself to Bones (who hates that nickname because he knows where it comes from and it's just a reminder of how he fucked everything up), but he doesn't have the energy to tell this kid to fuck off after it doesn't work the 17th time
> 
> Jim's loud and kinda dickheadish, and Bones wants to punch him, but then a prof says something in class that gets Bones back up, and he's all set to stand up and argue, because how can ANYONE think like that in this day and age, but before he can, Jim is there yelling and defending his outrage, in a super clever way, none of this "dumb hick" look he's been pulling, and, oh, crap, I stupidly misjudged this kid, maybe I shouldn't spend lunch glaring at him".

Len had no idea how the kid managed to find him at any given time of day, but he did. Between classes, in the mess hall, in the library-- hell, he’d even gone off campus for a few hours the other day and the damn cadet had managed to show up out of the blue, plunk himself down at the table Len had commandeered in what was quickly becoming his go-to coffee spot, and start talking Len’s ear off. 

He’d briefly toyed with the idea that Kirk had tapped him with some kind of tracker, because there was very little explanation beyond the absolutely unreasonable for how the kid seemed to know where he was all the damn time. 

If it was just following him around like a kicked puppy, he’d maybe (probably) be able to tolerate the persistent tag along and begrudgingly accept the uninvited company. But the kid never shuts the hell up. 

He talks incessantly, about all manner of things that Len couldn’t care less about. Engineering. Antique cars. The statistical likelihood of the family farm ever being profitable again, when Len calls him a corn-fed farmer one day. Articles he’s read on Orion biology or the psychological comparison of maternal instinct between Gorns and Atralans. Half the time Len just blinks in confusion and somehow, he’s pretty sure that just spurs the kid on. 

Not only that, the kid is hell on wheels. Always getting into trouble, brash and careless and mouthier than he has any right to be with bruises still healing on his face and blood still staining the collar of the one t-shirt Kirk ever seems to wear outside of his reds because apparently he can’t be bothered to do laundry. 

And he eats like a teenager, shoving anything and everything into his mouth with gusto (except salads, go figure… kid was going to drive himself to an early grave, eating like that). He often picks at Len’s food as well, without being asked or invited, and returns all of Len’s glares and grumbles with that shit-eating grin and that godforsaken nickname that does nothing but remind Len that he’s got nothing and no one left at every twist and turn.

Len isn’t sure what sins he’s committed to warrant it, but Jim Kirk sure as hell seems like penance to him. 

His patience wears thinner with each passing day, with each sudden appearance of Kirk at his side, at his table, near his desk. 

It takes 23 days, 13 hours, and 7 minutes for Len to completely lose it on the kid. 

After an unexpected call which turned out to be Joanna, somehow having gotten a hold of Jocelyn’s comm and accidentally dialing him, the briefest moment hearing his baby girl’s voice before the connection went dead, he was already in a sour mood and wanted nothing more to be left alone to wallow for a while. 

And of course, that’s when Kirk found him. 

He cuts the kid off mid-sentence, putting a halt to his ramblings about a “night on the town” with a low and livid, “What do you _want_ from me, kid?” 

For his part, Kirk just blinks at him, half surprised and half confused. “I should think that was obvious, Bones--”

“Don’t call me that,” Len interjected half-heartedly, but the blond just kept going.

“-- I want you to come out for a drink tonight.” 

Len stares at the kid for longer than is probably natural. Finally, with a sigh of utter exhaustion, something hot and angry coiling in his gut he spits out, “Why the hell would I go for a drink with you?” Something in Kirk’s expression pinches minutely, and Len feels the barest flickering of regret for his tone, but it’s too late now, he’s already speaking again. “Don’t you get it, kid? I ain’t got nothing to offer you. But you won’t leave me the hell alone. So what do you _want?”_

Kirk watches him, expression carefully neutral but not enough to hide the slightest glimmer of hurt as he shoves his hands into his pockets. 

“Nothing,” he says, far too quickly and a little too glib to be truthful. “Sorry, I didn’t realize I was bothering you. I just thought--” Kirk trailed off, with a shrug, shoulders tense, and a brittle smile plastered on his face. “I’ll see you around, ok?” 

And just like that, he turns and leaves. 

And Len-- Len feels like an ass. If the kid’s intent was to annoy him, he sure as hell wouldn’t have given in so easily. Len hadn’t been able to shake him in weeks, so he knew the kid was more persistent than that. Something uncomfortable and stinging strongly of guilt settles within him. 

He tries for a few days to find Kirk and apologize, but he’s nowhere to be seen. He stops showing up on Len’s route between classes, stops seating himself with Len at lunch, stops… existing, for all intents and purposes. Len doesn’t see him again for over a week, and then it’s only a fleeting glance from across the quad as the kid rushes to a class of his own. 

The semester ends, and the new one begins. He and Kirk have a few classes together, but just enough time has passed that reaching out or apologizing would feel awkward and uncomfortable and Len can’t help but feel like maybe he’s screwed up his once chance at having if not a friend, at least an ally in this place that’s too big and too bright and too much for him sometimes. 

He eats alone. He studies alone. He spends his free time alone. He begins to miss the idle chatter and the familiar if the jarring presence of the man who had apparently just wanted to be his friend and whom he’d shot down so completely that the kid had not only apologized but outright removed every trace of himself that he could from Len’s life. 

And he tries not to think about how sad that is. 

Eventually, he can’t take it anymore, and he decides that pride be damned, he needs to apologize to the kid. He starts trying to figure out Jim’s routine (and to ignore how creepy it makes him feel). He makes sure he’s at least in Jim’s line of sight a few times a day and starts throwing out little waves or friendly nods when they pass each other on campus. And he notices a few things. 

He notices that Jim is always alone, too. 

He sits alone in classes. 

In the mess. 

In the library. 

And he… doesn’t really talk to anyone. He moves around campus without much acknowledgment that he’s there at all, like he doesn’t fit in and he could disappear without anyone noticing. 

It hits Len, then, that the two of them are more alike than he’d realized. Alone, different, and just taking things one step at a time. No friends. No family. Just… this. 

Jim isn’t his penance… but he is Jim’s Hail Mary. 

Jim had just wanted a friend. 

And damnit, so did Len. 

So after a while, he finds Jim in the mess hall, and he hesitantly seats himself at the table opposite the kid. Jim eyes him warily for a moment, curiosity sparking in his eyes as he looks up from his PADD in question. 

“My name,” Len begins, figuring a fresh start might be best, “is Leonard McCoy, and I’m-- a complete ass sometimes. And I’m sorry.” 

Jim’s lips quirk at the edges, and he scoffs out a laugh. “Join the club. We’ll get jackets.” 

The conversation is stilted and hesitant, both of them a tad uncomfortable and doing their best to keep things light and extend the proverbial olive branch to the other. It’s awkward but nice, and Len almost finds himself smiling when Jim says, “I’m still gonna call you Bones.” 

Almost.


End file.
